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In order to pay tribute and also commemorate journalists and highlight the difficulties, they face while reporting the truth in today's scenario, every year World Press Freedom Day is celebrated on May 3.
It is to be mentioned here that the fourth pillar of democracy which is regarded as to be the media and its extended family requires a certain degree of freedom, which is guaranteed in the constitutions of various democratic nations and also in the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
About World Press Freedom Day
Every year, May 3rd is a date that celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence, and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.
3 May was proclaimed World Press Freedom Day the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO's General Conference in 1991.
It serves as an occasion to inform citizens of violations of press freedom - a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended, and closed down, while journalists, editors, and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained, and even murdered.
It is a date to encourage and develop initiatives in favor of press freedom and to assess the state of press freedom worldwide.
It serves as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.
The 3 topics to be highlighted at this year's World Press Freedom Day 2021 Global Conference, as per UNESCO are:
• Steps to ensure the economic viability of news media
• Mechanisms for ensuring transparency of Internet companies
• Enhanced Media and Information Literacy (MIL) capacities that enable people to recognize and value, as well as defend and demand, journalism as a vital part of information as a public good.
Take a look at messages from well-known personalities extending greetings on the occasion--
Notably in the year 2020-21, according to a study conducted by the Delhi-based Institute of Perception Studies, as many as 101 journalists have succumbed to COVID-19 between 1 April 2020 and 28 April 2021.
Additionally, over 50 journalists have passed away due to COVID-related complications since January 2021 which includes 8 journalists from Assam. Read more
It is to be mentioned here that Media Organisations and allied services have been working non-stop since the onset of the pandemic in India, trying to collate and verify the actual number of deaths in the country.
These scribes are not only reporting on the national health crisis but confronting it, on a daily basis, which has taken a toll on them. The study conducted by Rate The Debate, an initiative of the Institute of Perception Studies, New Delhi, found that 56 journalists have succumbed to the virus in the last four months this year, from 1 January to 28 April, 52 of these deaths were reported in the month of April alone.